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Product Details
ROBERTSON, HADDINGTON
A FINE 38-BORE PERCUSSION TARGET PISTOL OF DUELLING STYLE, no visible serial number,
circa 1840, with browned octagonal smoothbore 9in. barrel, the top-flat signed 'HADDINGTON', the underside marked 'FINE STUBS TWISTED', white metal fore-sight, colour-hardened breech-block with gold line and engraved with the mask of a lion, platinum plug, fully engraved colour-hardened top-tang with standing notch rear-sight, borderline and scroll engraved colour-hardened bar-action lock signed 'ROBERTSON', engraved colour-hardened hammer, walnut half-stock with chequered grip and flaring flat-based heel, the wrist of grip with vacant oval escutcheon, blued spurred trigger guard bow also engraved with a lion's mask, single set trigger and ebony ramrod with iron tip and brass-mounted worm end with cover, the whole in good condition and retaining much original finish and colour
Provenance: This pistol was built by John Ireland Robertson (1807-1888), father of the highly regarded John Robertson who bought Boss & Co in 1891 and catapulted the firm to international status. John Ireland set up his business around 1830 in his home-town of Haddington, just to the east of Edinburgh and built many percussion rifles that were renowned for their accuracy. He was also one of the first to fit telescopic sights to his percussion rifles. His son, John Robertson was apprenticed to him in 1853 and it was during the course of this apprenticeship that he learned his prodigious skills directly from his father. John Ireland also built target pistols, of which this piece is one, and when he died in 1888, his obituary in the Haddingtonshire Courier stated "the rifles turned out by Robertson of Haddington acquired almost a national celebrity for their excellence of construction".
His nickname in Haddington was "The Gunner", well deserved as all his rifles and pistols were built to the highest standards
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Estimate £1,000-2,000